Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
A lot of companies that allow wfh have it written into the contract that you can work from abroad more than a small number of days a year. Presumably it causes issues with payroll
IIRC it's more to do with Corporation Tax. If some of your employees work from France, the French government might hit you with a demand - and you won't be able to subtract it from your UK bill, so you would be double charged.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
That's not FoM; it's just the 90/180 we already have. As long as you like in Spain, and 90/180 elsewhere. Not sure how much checking is going on, but these days some: I've had to fill in forms at AirBNBs in Schengen with EU logos on - so my passport number is being recorded somewhere.
Is it not FoM? Fair enough
Tho as you say once you are in Schengen you can cross borders by land and sea - at least - with no checking at all. So how will they ever police it with these people?
If you ever get checked in say France you can show your digital nomad card which gives you residency in Spain and the right to move around Europe. What would they do then?
Shoplifting is prosecuted in LA - it's just (wrongly imo) done so as a misdemeanor.
Why?
Because California has a strict "three strikes and you're out" law.
Three felonies and it's life without parole.
The result of which was that every shoplifting case in California was going to jury trial - what's the point in a plea bargain, when there's nothing to bargain for: that packet of cigarettes you stole is a felony and you're going to jail forever.
And juries weren't convicting. The defense was always: "look into your heart, should the defendant go to prison for life for this minor crime".
And so (lower value) shoplifting was reduced to a misdemeanor, because then at least you could give people community service. And if people didn't turn up for community service, then that was a felony.
Reminds me of the good old days of 200 years ago that our PBTories hanker for, before any of this woke stuff from Bentham, the anti-slavery campaigners, the votes for the proles lot, the repeal the corn laws mob, etc. When you could get strung up for stealing anything worth more than five shillings [or whjatever it was].
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
A lot of companies that allow wfh have it written into the contract that you can work from abroad more than a small number of days a year. Presumably it causes issues with payroll
I think these schemes are for freelancers who invoice, not for people who are employed by a company and are on PAYE.
Morning all! I agree with @Heathener - the public mood is mutinous. And the latest Tory obscenity is the attack on British men of Pakistani heritage.
Yes, we have a few examples of Pakistani "grooming gangs" which the authorities ignored. But she's basically just given all the white men who do this the green light to not be suspected.
They *can't* be a nonce. They have white skin. Just like Jimmy Saville . This is crayon politics aimed at genuinely ignorant people who have had this weaponised by certain newspapers as a stick to beat anyone with funny skin. Or anyone who actually has a faith unlike the ignorant white racist.
Before anyone says I am being exclusionary, I am not. Some heinous acts have been carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage. As well as by white men of non-Pakistani heritage. Personally I think we should go after criminals - hard to do when the government have gutted the justice system.
I feel for you
an Asian PM and and Asian home secretary so you cant cry racist.
You must be gutted.
Laughable. This is a policy written in crayon to stoke racism. BTW "Asian" is itself racist when you are claiming that a Hindu PM and an Indian-heritage HS are the same as people of Pakistani origin.
Can't be racist? You ever heard Indians and Pakistanis going at each other? This is someone from one heritage branding people of a different heritage to all be perverts. It is *inherently racist.
Growing up in Rochdale in the 1980s, "paki" what white person shorthand for all the Asians in the town. Despite the reality that we had sizable communities from India. Kashmir. Bangladesh. And yes Pakistan. Branding anyone with brown skin as a unitary group - "Asian" in your case - is as ignorant as my Gran calling the Indian family next door "the Pakis"
It is 2023. Really sad to read that level of ignorance is live and well. Then again we know this - that policy is aimed square at them.
Ive sat in rooms with hindus sikhs and buddhists and what they say about the muslims would have me put in jail if I said it.
And thats the point, you and your pastey faced cohorts run around yelling racism when there is no equal application of the law and all that counts is which group meets your virtue signalling twaddle this week.
So having experienced Asian on Asian racism yourself - as I have - why have you said that the HS can't be racist towards a different Asian heritage?
You mention equal application of the law. Growing up in Rochdale the local monster was Cyril Smith. Who got away with it. In more recent times the monsters have been Pakistani heritage. Who got away with it.
If inbuilt racism is the reason why we don't apply the law equally, why do we keep having appalling cases where mass offenders eventually get caught? If racism is why the Pakistani heritage gang members took so long to get caught, was it also racism that the same system ignored Smith?
Not the smartest thing you have ever posted.
It was plain that there was a very great reluctance on the part of the authorities to deal with the concerns raised by Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion due to its being “ a cultural matter.”
But overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that too many people in authority really are unbothered by child abuse, unless it’s done to their own children.
It's very sad, Britons are far more interested in animals than children.
We all have different priorities and humanity has had a malign effect on everything else on the planet. Unsurprising that some people want to do what they can to try to rectify that. After centuries of experience the corrupt and the greedy and the downright evil are still rising to the top, no lessons ever really learned.
Different priorities is not justification for turning a blind-eye to child abuse.
There is no justification to turning a blind eye to cruelty and abuse wherever and whenever it occurs.
Also - cruelty to animals is now regarded as a major warning sign of cruelty to people. Though I am not sure how consistently that message is taken on board.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
That's not FoM; it's just the 90/180 we already have. As long as you like in Spain, and 90/180 elsewhere. Not sure how much checking is going on, but these days some: I've had to fill in forms at AirBNBs in Schengen with EU logos on - so my passport number is being recorded somewhere.
Is it not FoM? Fair enough
Tho as you say once you are in Schengen you can cross borders by land and sea - at least - with no checking at all. So how will they ever police it with these people?
If you ever get checked in say France you can show your digital nomad card which gives you residency in Spain and the right to move around Europe. What would they do then?
It will be a mess
Same as it is here - right to rent laws, like the one I describe with the AirBNB. Remember in most EU contries you have to show a passport to stay at a hotel.
I think you'd probably get away with it in practice, though - they couldn't really ban you from Schengen without persuading the Spanish to rescind your residency.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
The problem was surely not the lack of laws, but the failure to apply any of the existing ones. As far as I was aware, rape is illegal, rape of minors especially so.
Yes. Lots more of this nonsense until voters are against more or less all new laws and vote for enforcement of existing ones.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
A lot of companies that allow wfh have it written into the contract that you can work from abroad more than a small number of days a year. Presumably it causes issues with payroll
I think these schemes are for freelancers who invoice, not for people who are employed by a company and are on PAYE.
AFAIK it's for anyone non-EU who can work remotely, for non Spanish companies, or is self employed getting most of their income outside Spain
It would be harder, however, for PAYE employees, surely. Companies will introduce rules otherwise everyone will be bugging out for the sun
Shoplifting is prosecuted in LA - it's just (wrongly imo) done so as a misdemeanor.
Why?
Because California has a strict "three strikes and you're out" law.
Three felonies and it's life without parole.
The result of which was that every shoplifting case in California was going to jury trial - what's the point in a plea bargain, when there's nothing to bargain for: that packet of cigarettes you stole is a felony and you're going to jail forever.
And juries weren't convicting. The defense was always: "look into your heart, should the defendant go to prison for life for this minor crime".
And so (lower value) shoplifting was reduced to a misdemeanor, because then at least you could give people community service. And if people didn't turn up for community service, then that was a felony.
A perfect example of focusing on showy 'tough on crime' legislation, rather than the hard work of enforcement.
Remind anyone of a government a bit closer to home ?
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
There’s no need to worry; until they work out how to make a decent cup of tea the other side of the Channel or Atlantic, these putative economic migrants will keep on coming back. Or never risk it in the first place, despite all the huff and puff.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
Morning all! I agree with @Heathener - the public mood is mutinous. And the latest Tory obscenity is the attack on British men of Pakistani heritage.
Yes, we have a few examples of Pakistani "grooming gangs" which the authorities ignored. But she's basically just given all the white men who do this the green light to not be suspected.
They *can't* be a nonce. They have white skin. Just like Jimmy Saville . This is crayon politics aimed at genuinely ignorant people who have had this weaponised by certain newspapers as a stick to beat anyone with funny skin. Or anyone who actually has a faith unlike the ignorant white racist.
Before anyone says I am being exclusionary, I am not. Some heinous acts have been carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage. As well as by white men of non-Pakistani heritage. Personally I think we should go after criminals - hard to do when the government have gutted the justice system.
I feel for you
an Asian PM and and Asian home secretary so you cant cry racist.
You must be gutted.
Laughable. This is a policy written in crayon to stoke racism. BTW "Asian" is itself racist when you are claiming that a Hindu PM and an Indian-heritage HS are the same as people of Pakistani origin.
Can't be racist? You ever heard Indians and Pakistanis going at each other? This is someone from one heritage branding people of a different heritage to all be perverts. It is *inherently racist.
Growing up in Rochdale in the 1980s, "paki" what white person shorthand for all the Asians in the town. Despite the reality that we had sizable communities from India. Kashmir. Bangladesh. And yes Pakistan. Branding anyone with brown skin as a unitary group - "Asian" in your case - is as ignorant as my Gran calling the Indian family next door "the Pakis"
It is 2023. Really sad to read that level of ignorance is live and well. Then again we know this - that policy is aimed square at them.
Ive sat in rooms with hindus sikhs and buddhists and what they say about the muslims would have me put in jail if I said it.
And thats the point, you and your pastey faced cohorts run around yelling racism when there is no equal application of the law and all that counts is which group meets your virtue signalling twaddle this week.
So having experienced Asian on Asian racism yourself - as I have - why have you said that the HS can't be racist towards a different Asian heritage?
You mention equal application of the law. Growing up in Rochdale the local monster was Cyril Smith. Who got away with it. In more recent times the monsters have been Pakistani heritage. Who got away with it.
If inbuilt racism is the reason why we don't apply the law equally, why do we keep having appalling cases where mass offenders eventually get caught? If racism is why the Pakistani heritage gang members took so long to get caught, was it also racism that the same system ignored Smith?
Not the smartest thing you have ever posted.
It was plain that there was a very great reluctance on the part of the authorities to deal with the concerns raised by Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion due to its being “ a cultural matter.”
But overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that too many people in authority really are unbothered by child abuse, unless it’s done to their own children.
It's very sad, Britons are far more interested in animals than children.
Have you ever stopped to ponder why that might be?
Why do you think it might be?
I can only speak for myself. The one thing the world could could easily get by without is further increases in population. Those that want to have children are freel to do so but the children are their responsibility. We happily pay taxes toward their education, healthcare and protection but beyond that it's down to the parents.
If however humans don't intervene to protect other species and prevent the trashing of the planet in general then nobody else is going to. There is barely a problem that the world faces that isn't exacerbated by an ever-increasing population. Drought, famine, climate change, destruction of habitat. I guess my money goes to support animal and environmental charities because I don't believe that humans have the right to push everything else off the face of the earth,
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
As Malcolm has arrived to lower the intellectual tone of the debate, I will wish everyone adieu and do some work (that roughly translates to goodbye Malcolm)
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
IIRC, for the Portuguese one you’ll need to be ‘employed’ by a British company. Which has implications for UK income tax and corporation tax as a British citizen. You’d be a “Non-Dom”. Perhaps you could be ‘employed’ by a Cayman Islands company instead, which might be easier?
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
That's not FoM; it's just the 90/180 we already have. As long as you like in Spain, and 90/180 elsewhere. Not sure how much checking is going on, but these days some: I've had to fill in forms at AirBNBs in Schengen with EU logos on - so my passport number is being recorded somewhere.
Is it not FoM? Fair enough
Tho as you say once you are in Schengen you can cross borders by land and sea - at least - with no checking at all. So how will they ever police it with these people?
If you ever get checked in say France you can show your digital nomad card which gives you residency in Spain and the right to move around Europe. What would they do then?
It will be a mess
Same as it is here - right to rent laws, like the one I describe with the AirBNB. Remember in most EU contries you have to show a passport to stay at a hotel.
I think you'd probably get away with it in practice, though - they couldn't really ban you from Schengen without persuading the Spanish to rescind your residency.
I find it hard to believe there will be a super computer in Brussels checking all the passport numbers taken in every hotel and adding up the dates for individual non EU citizens who are digital nomads with rights to be in Spain for 5 years and seeing how many days they were outside Spain but in the EU in this or that hotel or airbnb - or staying with friends? So no passport is recorded at all
It's basically FoM if you get the digital nomad visa. However you wouldn't be able to WORK outside Spain in the EU, but seeing as you are already a remote worker that doesn't matter
Passport numbers are taken in hotels so that if there is a crime or a suspect on the run, THEN these people can be traced. They aren't used otherwise, as I understand it
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
IIRC, for the Portuguese one you’ll need to be ‘employed’ by a British company. Which has implications for UK income tax and corporation tax as a British citizen. You’d be a “Non-Dom”. Perhaps you could be ‘employed’ by a Cayman Islands company instead, which might be easier?
It does involve a commitment to living in Portugal and paying tax there, rather than in the UK - so, practically speaking, I suspect it's only for those with a few different clients. As a consultant these days, I would definitely qualify, but there's too much keeping me in the UK to make the move.
As Malcolm has arrived to lower the intellectual tone of the debate, I will wish everyone adieu and do some work (that roughly translates to goodbye Malcolm)
Why are Malcolm and Nigel always having a go at each other? Gets a bit tedious.
Tedious for me as well but if the arsehole keeps hurling insults on my posts theweirdo will get it back in spades.. He is a total Richardhead who keeps posting the same crap on my posts, obviously has shit for brains.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
Housing - or the inaccessibility of ownership to growing numbers of working people - probably has quite a lot to do with it, too.
Morning all! I agree with @Heathener - the public mood is mutinous. And the latest Tory obscenity is the attack on British men of Pakistani heritage.
Yes, we have a few examples of Pakistani "grooming gangs" which the authorities ignored. But she's basically just given all the white men who do this the green light to not be suspected.
They *can't* be a nonce. They have white skin. Just like Jimmy Saville . This is crayon politics aimed at genuinely ignorant people who have had this weaponised by certain newspapers as a stick to beat anyone with funny skin. Or anyone who actually has a faith unlike the ignorant white racist.
Before anyone says I am being exclusionary, I am not. Some heinous acts have been carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage. As well as by white men of non-Pakistani heritage. Personally I think we should go after criminals - hard to do when the government have gutted the justice system.
I feel for you
an Asian PM and and Asian home secretary so you cant cry racist.
You must be gutted.
Laughable. This is a policy written in crayon to stoke racism. BTW "Asian" is itself racist when you are claiming that a Hindu PM and an Indian-heritage HS are the same as people of Pakistani origin.
Can't be racist? You ever heard Indians and Pakistanis going at each other? This is someone from one heritage branding people of a different heritage to all be perverts. It is *inherently racist.
Growing up in Rochdale in the 1980s, "paki" what white person shorthand for all the Asians in the town. Despite the reality that we had sizable communities from India. Kashmir. Bangladesh. And yes Pakistan. Branding anyone with brown skin as a unitary group - "Asian" in your case - is as ignorant as my Gran calling the Indian family next door "the Pakis"
It is 2023. Really sad to read that level of ignorance is live and well. Then again we know this - that policy is aimed square at them.
Ive sat in rooms with hindus sikhs and buddhists and what they say about the muslims would have me put in jail if I said it.
And thats the point, you and your pastey faced cohorts run around yelling racism when there is no equal application of the law and all that counts is which group meets your virtue signalling twaddle this week.
So having experienced Asian on Asian racism yourself - as I have - why have you said that the HS can't be racist towards a different Asian heritage?
You mention equal application of the law. Growing up in Rochdale the local monster was Cyril Smith. Who got away with it. In more recent times the monsters have been Pakistani heritage. Who got away with it.
If inbuilt racism is the reason why we don't apply the law equally, why do we keep having appalling cases where mass offenders eventually get caught? If racism is why the Pakistani heritage gang members took so long to get caught, was it also racism that the same system ignored Smith?
Not the smartest thing you have ever posted.
It was plain that there was a very great reluctance on the part of the authorities to deal with the concerns raised by Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion due to its being “ a cultural matter.”
But overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that too many people in authority really are unbothered by child abuse, unless it’s done to their own children.
It's very sad, Britons are far more interested in animals than children.
Have you ever stopped to ponder why that might be?
Why do you think it might be?
I can only speak for myself. The one thing the world could could easily get by without is further increases in population. Those that want to have children are freel to do so but the children are their responsibility. We happily pay taxes toward their education, healthcare and protection but beyond that it's down to the parents.
If however humans don't intervene to protect other species and prevent the trashing of the planet in general then nobody else is going to. There is barely a problem that the world faces that isn't exacerbated by an ever-increasing population. Drought, famine, climate change, destruction of habitat. I guess my money goes to support animal and environmental charities because I don't believe that humans have the right to push everything else off the face of the earth,
Without enough children in the next few generations, you will be screwed in retirememt. If you have a public pension and healthcare, they need to pay in the taxes to keep it going. If you have private healthcare, you need young people subsidizing the risk pools to keep premiums down. If you have a private pension, the rate of return on investment is only possible by having enough workers to keep growth going.
Climate change and habitat destruction should be addressed by direct regulation on those things.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
Housing - or the inaccessibility of ownership to growing numbers of working people - probably has quite a lot to do with it, too.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Shoplifting is prosecuted in LA - it's just (wrongly imo) done so as a misdemeanor.
Why?
Because California has a strict "three strikes and you're out" law.
Three felonies and it's life without parole.
The result of which was that every shoplifting case in California was going to jury trial - what's the point in a plea bargain, when there's nothing to bargain for: that packet of cigarettes you stole is a felony and you're going to jail forever.
And juries weren't convicting. The defense was always: "look into your heart, should the defendant go to prison for life for this minor crime".
And so (lower value) shoplifting was reduced to a misdemeanor, because then at least you could give people community service. And if people didn't turn up for community service, then that was a felony.
So you’ve already got two felonies on your record, and think that robbing a packet of cigarettes is worth being done for the third one?
IIRC, the police now have no interest in arresting people for misdemeanors, so hundreds of shops are closing due to the ‘shrinkage’. Is that not correct?
There’s an interesting case in Texas over the weekend, where someone had his truck stolen and followed it with an AirTag, before getting into a shootout with the thief, in which the thief was killed. He followed it because the police weren’t interested.
The previous situation wasn't working either: juries weren't convicting people of shoplifting, and the Public Prosecutor's Office was refusing to take cases through to trial.
What's the solution?
If juries are refusing to convict because the punishment seems disproportionate to the crime, you can either get rid of juries (bad), or change the crime to one where you don't need to go to a jury trial.
Neither are great solutions, but the fundamental problem is with mandatory sentencing.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
Not bizarre at all when you consider the causal factor of economic prosperity. The more successful, bluer parts of America have more educated populations that take care of their health and live longer. They also push up house prices due to their proximity to business hubs, which causes people to move out.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
It’s 89 or 90 nights in the UK, as a non-resident citizen, before HMRC takes an interest.
My old boss, a Dubai property developer, used to keep extensive travel records going back a decade, because he was scared witless of a UK tax investigation. He did earn about £4m a year in salary and dividends, so any assessment would have been brutal.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
Shoplifting is prosecuted in LA - it's just (wrongly imo) done so as a misdemeanor.
Why?
Because California has a strict "three strikes and you're out" law.
Three felonies and it's life without parole.
The result of which was that every shoplifting case in California was going to jury trial - what's the point in a plea bargain, when there's nothing to bargain for: that packet of cigarettes you stole is a felony and you're going to jail forever.
And juries weren't convicting. The defense was always: "look into your heart, should the defendant go to prison for life for this minor crime".
And so (lower value) shoplifting was reduced to a misdemeanor, because then at least you could give people community service. And if people didn't turn up for community service, then that was a felony.
So you’ve already got two felonies on your record, and think that robbing a packet of cigarettes is worth being done for the third one?
IIRC, the police now have no interest in arresting people for misdemeanors, so hundreds of shops are closing due to the ‘shrinkage’. Is that not correct?
There’s an interesting case in Texas over the weekend, where someone had his truck stolen and followed it with an AirTag, before getting into a shootout with the thief, in which the thief was killed. He followed it because the police weren’t interested.
The previous situation wasn't working either: juries weren't convicting people of shoplifting, and the Public Prosecutor's Office was refusing to take cases through to trial.
What's the solution?
If juries are refusing to convict because the punishment seems disproportionate to the crime, you can either get rid of juries (bad), or change the crime to one where you don't need to go to a jury trial.
Neither are great solutions, but the fundamental problem is with mandatory sentencing.
It's a bloody stupid law. As has been obvious since ... about 1928,
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
As Malcolm has arrived to lower the intellectual tone of the debate, I will wish everyone adieu and do some work (that roughly translates to goodbye Malcolm)
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
Not bizarre at all when you consider the causal factor of economic prosperity. The more successful, bluer parts of America have more educated populations that take care of their health and live longer. They also push up house prices due to their proximity to business hubs, which causes people to move out.
It still doesn't add up. The people moving out will be mobile. ie so probably younger and healthier and possibly smarter than the average. This should bring down the life expectancy in the places they depart and raise it in the places they arrive
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
That's not FoM; it's just the 90/180 we already have. As long as you like in Spain, and 90/180 elsewhere. Not sure how much checking is going on, but these days some: I've had to fill in forms at AirBNBs in Schengen with EU logos on - so my passport number is being recorded somewhere.
Is it not FoM? Fair enough
Tho as you say once you are in Schengen you can cross borders by land and sea - at least - with no checking at all. So how will they ever police it with these people?
If you ever get checked in say France you can show your digital nomad card which gives you residency in Spain and the right to move around Europe. What would they do then?
It will be a mess
Same as it is here - right to rent laws, like the one I describe with the AirBNB. Remember in most EU contries you have to show a passport to stay at a hotel.
I think you'd probably get away with it in practice, though - they couldn't really ban you from Schengen without persuading the Spanish to rescind your residency.
I find it hard to believe there will be a super computer in Brussels checking all the passport numbers taken in every hotel and adding up the dates for individual non EU citizens who are digital nomads with rights to be in Spain for 5 years and seeing how many days they were outside Spain but in the EU in this or that hotel or airbnb - or staying with friends? So no passport is recorded at all
It's basically FoM if you get the digital nomad visa. However you wouldn't be able to WORK outside Spain in the EU, but seeing as you are already a remote worker that doesn't matter
Passport numbers are taken in hotels so that if there is a crime or a suspect on the run, THEN these people can be traced. They aren't used otherwise, as I understand it
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Absolutely. But the Conservatives have made themselves prisoners of the bit of the electorate that isn't looking to start buying a house, doesn't mind prices going up and really doesn't want their peace and view disturbed.
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
Not bizarre at all when you consider the causal factor of economic prosperity. The more successful, bluer parts of America have more educated populations that take care of their health and live longer. They also push up house prices due to their proximity to business hubs, which causes people to move out.
It still doesn't add up. The people moving out will be mobile. ie so probably younger and healthier and possibly smarter than the average. This should bring down the life expectancy in the places they depart and raise it in the places they arrive
The two data sets don't seem to cohere
Maybe the movers are on average poorer than than those left behind. If you're doing well you usually don't leave.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
It's common on teenager-youtube (which sadly, I have become familiar with) as an inverted-snobbery synonym for posh. I don't think they really understand the politics.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
You suggesting it will crush Scottish independence?
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
IIRC, for the Portuguese one you’ll need to be ‘employed’ by a British company. Which has implications for UK income tax and corporation tax as a British citizen. You’d be a “Non-Dom”. Perhaps you could be ‘employed’ by a Cayman Islands company instead, which might be easier?
It does involve a commitment to living in Portugal and paying tax there, rather than in the UK - so, practically speaking, I suspect it's only for those with a few different clients. As a consultant these days, I would definitely qualify, but there's too much keeping me in the UK to make the move.
My best friend from University moved to Lisbon in October to benefit from this.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Yes we should, as Bart used to say.
Problem is NIMBYISM, and the Tories rolled back on their planning reforms after Chesham and Amersham
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
It's common on teenager-youtube (which sadly, I have become familiar with) as an inverted-snobbery synonym for posh. I don't think they really understand the politics.
Neither do I. What is British conservatism these days ?
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
IIRC, for the Portuguese one you’ll need to be ‘employed’ by a British company. Which has implications for UK income tax and corporation tax as a British citizen. You’d be a “Non-Dom”. Perhaps you could be ‘employed’ by a Cayman Islands company instead, which might be easier?
It does involve a commitment to living in Portugal and paying tax there, rather than in the UK - so, practically speaking, I suspect it's only for those with a few different clients. As a consultant these days, I would definitely qualify, but there's too much keeping me in the UK to make the move.
My best friend from University moved to Lisbon in October to benefit from this.
He has no regrets.
Moved from where? London? LA?
Does he speak Portuguese or are there now enough English speakers in Lisbon it doesn't matter?
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
It's common on teenager-youtube (which sadly, I have become familiar with) as an inverted-snobbery synonym for posh. I don't think they really understand the politics.
Neither do I. What is British conservatism these days ?
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
It's common on teenager-youtube (which sadly, I have become familiar with) as an inverted-snobbery synonym for posh. I don't think they really understand the politics.
Yes I think it is exactly as you describe. My son and his mates were arguing yesterday about which of them was the most posh. I didn't like to break it to them that they were basically all a bit posh.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
IIRC, for the Portuguese one you’ll need to be ‘employed’ by a British company. Which has implications for UK income tax and corporation tax as a British citizen. You’d be a “Non-Dom”. Perhaps you could be ‘employed’ by a Cayman Islands company instead, which might be easier?
It does involve a commitment to living in Portugal and paying tax there, rather than in the UK - so, practically speaking, I suspect it's only for those with a few different clients. As a consultant these days, I would definitely qualify, but there's too much keeping me in the UK to make the move.
My best friend from University moved to Lisbon in October to benefit from this.
He has no regrets.
Moved from where? London? LA?
Does he speak Portuguese or are there now enough English speakers in Lisbon it doesn't matter?
He does not speak Portuguese, but he is taking lessons. (Albeit, I don't think learning the language is his only motivation!)
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
A lot of companies that allow wfh have it written into the contract that you can work from abroad more than a small number of days a year. Presumably it causes issues with payroll
I think these schemes are for freelancers who invoice, not for people who are employed by a company and are on PAYE.
AFAIK it's for anyone non-EU who can work remotely, for non Spanish companies, or is self employed getting most of their income outside Spain
It would be harder, however, for PAYE employees, surely. Companies will introduce rules otherwise everyone will be bugging out for the sun
Companies don't need to introduce rules as such for PAYE employees, they would just have to refuse to pay tax to the Spanish authorities and pay it to British ones instead, and insist that employees are tax-resident in Britain.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
I suspect a few years of Labour government in the UK will see a rapid return to the trend. I recall the Corn Laws saw a shift to Liberalism which did endure but Starmer is no Gladstone 😂
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Alicante.
Barcelona has the advantage of being a reasonable train ride from a) Madrid and b) The Cote d'Azur (depending on your definition of reasonable - Marseille is 4h45).
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Absolutely. But the Conservatives have made themselves prisoners of the bit of the electorate that isn't looking to start buying a house, doesn't mind prices going up and really doesn't want their peace and view disturbed.
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
History teaches us that the Conservatives understand the basic rules of adapt or die. They will adapt and not die. In most democracies at least 30% or more will always vote for right wing parties.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Granada is like Seville in summer and bitingly cold in winter.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
"Tory" is used as an insult by my 14yo son and his friends. (I have played no part in this practice, incidentally, and my son is not at all political, it's just that for his generation or at least the urban portion of it the Tories are like a malign and alien force).
Was much the same in the 1960s...
Indeed, the only Conservative leader to win under 25s in the last 50 years was Thatcher in 1983 (and only as the SDP split the anti Tory vote with Labour near equally).
Even 25 to 35s have only voted Conservative once in the last 30 years, for Cameron in 2010
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Alicante.
Barcelona has the advantage of being a reasonable train ride from a) Madrid and b) The Cote d'Azur (depending on your definition of reasonable - Marseille is 4h45).
Politics has fostered a deep sense of malaise in a city that is one of the most visited in Europe. Street crime is rising and many businesses have left"
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
I found Valencia.... pleasant. Nothing exceptional. Maybe I didn't look hard enough
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
Not bizarre at all when you consider the causal factor of economic prosperity. The more successful, bluer parts of America have more educated populations that take care of their health and live longer. They also push up house prices due to their proximity to business hubs, which causes people to move out.
It still doesn't add up. The people moving out will be mobile. ie so probably younger and healthier and possibly smarter than the average. This should bring down the life expectancy in the places they depart and raise it in the places they arrive
The two data sets don't seem to cohere
Maybe the movers are on average poorer than than those left behind. If you're doing well you usually don't leave.
Indeed, the smartest and wealthiest can afford to live and own property in New York City and San Francisco and LA and Boston and Seattle and pay the higher taxes the Democrats impose.
They don't need to move to cheaper, lower tax largely GOP states
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Absolutely. But the Conservatives have made themselves prisoners of the bit of the electorate that isn't looking to start buying a house, doesn't mind prices going up and really doesn't want their peace and view disturbed.
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
History teaches us that the Conservatives understand the basic rules of adapt or die. They will adapt and not die. In most democracies at least 30% or more will always vote for right wing parties.
Partially agreed- if anyone can adapt, the British Conservative Party can. But decisions taken a decade ago mean that they have an unusually urgent need to adapt the message and an unusually weak gene pool from which to do it.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
But by Spanish standards, it has really shite weather
If I'm gonna do this, I want my 2,500 hours of sun a year, minimum, and guaranteed long warm dry summers
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
But by Spanish standards, it has really shite weather
If I'm gonna do this, I want my 2,500 hours of sun a year, minimum, and guaranteed long warm dry summers
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
Totally agree.
Interesting, You know Spain well. Why? I am happy to be persuaded to look at Valencia
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Absolutely. But the Conservatives have made themselves prisoners of the bit of the electorate that isn't looking to start buying a house, doesn't mind prices going up and really doesn't want their peace and view disturbed.
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
History teaches us that the Conservatives understand the basic rules of adapt or die. They will adapt and not die. In most democracies at least 30% or more will always vote for right wing parties.
Partially agreed- if anyone can adapt, the British Conservative Party can. But decisions taken a decade ago mean that they have an unusually urgent need to adapt the message and an unusually weak gene pool from which to do it.
They don't need to adapt too much, remember the median voter is 50 now not 30.
If a Starmer government becomes unpopular the Conservatives could quickly retake a poll lead even if they still trail with under 45s
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
Valencia is the place. Seville is lovely but can get oppressively, dustily hot.
He knows he’s getting a full life sentence, and everyone else he knows in the Liverpool underworld is scared he’s going to open his mouth on the whole operation.
Apparently there’s a £250k price on his head, to stop him talking.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Valencia is way nicer than either and cheaper and less touristic!
I found Valencia.... pleasant. Nothing exceptional. Maybe I didn't look hard enough
I've been a few times, it has beaches, great food, an old town and super modern science park all pretty close together. I'm in coastal/rural Almería - Europe's driest and sunniest enclaves. Very low key but more authentically Spanish than most of the country.
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
But by Spanish standards, it has really shite weather
If I'm gonna do this, I want my 2,500 hours of sun a year, minimum, and guaranteed long warm dry summers
Then your palate must suffer for your palour....
Food is excellent in many parts of Spain, however. Seville is brilliant, for instance
And on my one trip to Valencia the only thing I do remember is: the food. Which was great
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
Rainy and cold too often. Like Devon and Cornwall. Also pricey for Spain
Look at this truly bizarre correlation. The first is American counties by life expectancy. The second is American counties by immigration. It seems Americans are fleeing the places where they live longest, so they can go to places where they die at 56
It’s all to do with the Covid response and crime levels. People are leaving LA, SF, Portland, and NY; heading to mostly Miami and Austin.
It's all to do with personal tax levels, IMHO.
The places people are leaving have high taxes, and the places they are going have low taxes.
In my part of California, you pay:
13% state income tax (which also applies to capital gains) 11% sales tax Property tax based on the purchase price of your property. If you buy a $1m house, you will be paying c. $18,000/year in annual property taxes.
By contrast, in Nevada there are dramatically lower property taxes and no state income tax.
I’ll go with a fair bit of both. If you can WFH from Nevada or Texas, and don’t need to be in Silicon Valley five days a week, then of course you’ll leave.
Policymakers and large companies are belatedly realising, that people really hated spending two or three or four hours a day commuting.
In my day job I advise businesses on location, and the US is really unique in the way personal and property tax levels (as opposed to corporate taxes) have such a material effect. In the post-Covid WFH world this has definitely become more acute. It's also messing up a lot of companies' careful state tax planning that relied on them avoiding nexus in lots of states.
In other countries it's a consideration - Switzerland's cantons being an example, German municipal taxes another - but much less marked.
The US has this great advantage of federalism that hundreds of millions of people and thousands of businesses can simply jump in a car and move somewhere with the same language, currency and culture but different laws on almost everything: a giant 50 state experiment. The EU at least within Schengen is closer to that than it used to be, with the Euro and free movement, but language and culture are still much bigger barriers.
The UK will soon face a major problem with unattached WFH freelancers effing off to Portugal, Spain, Greece to be digital nomads, with residency rights, paying much lower taxes, in the sun
Look at the tax rate!
"Remote workers can pay a reduced tax rate of 15 per cent during the first four years of their stay, provided they earn below €600,000 a year. This is instead of the usual 24 per cent rate."
And note this, it allows Freedom of Movement
"Remote workers can also apply for a residency card, which grants the ability to travel throughout the EU while living in Spain."
You need to have had a relationship with the Spanish company for three years before you can apply though.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
No, you don't. In fact it's the opposite. They don't want you to be working for Spanish companies (and taking work from Spaniards)
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
I did not realise about the full-time employment bit. If I was a few years younger I would do it tomorrow. What a fantastic opportunity.
I am literally applying right now. Brexit has just been rendered almost meaningless in terms of FoM
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
It's 15% they wouldn't otherwise get, so it's a win for them too. Do you have to show a list of clients etc?
I believe so, but that's easily done for a freelancer
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
I guess the catch is that you are restricted to the amount of time you can be in the UK for each year. Go over that and you are subject to tax here too. But it's not much of a catch.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Greece is doing it as well. If they had better bogs I'd probably go for Greece. A year on a beautiful island, with winter in Bangkok and 3 months in London in the late spring/summer? Sublime. That's pretty much a perfect lifestyle, if you have the ability to work from home, don't mind being a bit isolated, etc
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
A lot of freelancers need Spain/Portugal for the better timezone.
True. If I do this I will probably end up doing Spain. And the toilets are a real issue in Greece. UGH
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
Barcelona if I wanted to get stuff done. Galicia for bleak mornfulness. Not Seville; it's uninhabitable for three months a year. Maybe Granada.
Estepona looks fun
Donostia-San Sebastian has the best food and drink in Spain. Just 20 clicks from France too.
But by Spanish standards, it has really shite weather
If I'm gonna do this, I want my 2,500 hours of sun a year, minimum, and guaranteed long warm dry summers
Majorca? Plenty of space there to avoid the tourists.
Morning all! I agree with @Heathener - the public mood is mutinous. And the latest Tory obscenity is the attack on British men of Pakistani heritage.
Yes, we have a few examples of Pakistani "grooming gangs" which the authorities ignored. But she's basically just given all the white men who do this the green light to not be suspected.
They *can't* be a nonce. They have white skin. Just like Jimmy Saville . This is crayon politics aimed at genuinely ignorant people who have had this weaponised by certain newspapers as a stick to beat anyone with funny skin. Or anyone who actually has a faith unlike the ignorant white racist.
Before anyone says I am being exclusionary, I am not. Some heinous acts have been carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage. As well as by white men of non-Pakistani heritage. Personally I think we should go after criminals - hard to do when the government have gutted the justice system.
I feel for you
an Asian PM and and Asian home secretary so you cant cry racist.
You must be gutted.
Laughable. This is a policy written in crayon to stoke racism. BTW "Asian" is itself racist when you are claiming that a Hindu PM and an Indian-heritage HS are the same as people of Pakistani origin.
Can't be racist? You ever heard Indians and Pakistanis going at each other? This is someone from one heritage branding people of a different heritage to all be perverts. It is *inherently racist.
Growing up in Rochdale in the 1980s, "paki" what white person shorthand for all the Asians in the town. Despite the reality that we had sizable communities from India. Kashmir. Bangladesh. And yes Pakistan. Branding anyone with brown skin as a unitary group - "Asian" in your case - is as ignorant as my Gran calling the Indian family next door "the Pakis"
It is 2023. Really sad to read that level of ignorance is live and well. Then again we know this - that policy is aimed square at them.
Ive sat in rooms with hindus sikhs and buddhists and what they say about the muslims would have me put in jail if I said it.
And thats the point, you and your pastey faced cohorts run around yelling racism when there is no equal application of the law and all that counts is which group meets your virtue signalling twaddle this week.
So having experienced Asian on Asian racism yourself - as I have - why have you said that the HS can't be racist towards a different Asian heritage?
You mention equal application of the law. Growing up in Rochdale the local monster was Cyril Smith. Who got away with it. In more recent times the monsters have been Pakistani heritage. Who got away with it.
If inbuilt racism is the reason why we don't apply the law equally, why do we keep having appalling cases where mass offenders eventually get caught? If racism is why the Pakistani heritage gang members took so long to get caught, was it also racism that the same system ignored Smith?
Not the smartest thing you have ever posted.
It was plain that there was a very great reluctance on the part of the authorities to deal with the concerns raised by Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion due to its being “ a cultural matter.”
But overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that too many people in authority really are unbothered by child abuse, unless it’s done to their own children.
It's very sad, Britons are far more interested in animals than children.
Have you ever stopped to ponder why that might be?
Why do you think it might be?
I can only speak for myself. The one thing the world could could easily get by without is further increases in population. Those that want to have children are freel to do so but the children are their responsibility. We happily pay taxes toward their education, healthcare and protection but beyond that it's down to the parents.
If however humans don't intervene to protect other species and prevent the trashing of the planet in general then nobody else is going to. There is barely a problem that the world faces that isn't exacerbated by an ever-increasing population. Drought, famine, climate change, destruction of habitat. I guess my money goes to support animal and environmental charities because I don't believe that humans have the right to push everything else off the face of the earth,
Without enough children in the next few generations, you will be screwed in retirememt. If you have a public pension and healthcare, they need to pay in the taxes to keep it going. If you have private healthcare, you need young people subsidizing the risk pools to keep premiums down. If you have a private pension, the rate of return on investment is only possible by having enough workers to keep growth going.
Climate change and habitat destruction should be addressed by direct regulation on those things.
So a constantly expanding Ponzi scheme in reality?
Morning all! I agree with @Heathener - the public mood is mutinous. And the latest Tory obscenity is the attack on British men of Pakistani heritage.
Yes, we have a few examples of Pakistani "grooming gangs" which the authorities ignored. But she's basically just given all the white men who do this the green light to not be suspected.
They *can't* be a nonce. They have white skin. Just like Jimmy Saville . This is crayon politics aimed at genuinely ignorant people who have had this weaponised by certain newspapers as a stick to beat anyone with funny skin. Or anyone who actually has a faith unlike the ignorant white racist.
Before anyone says I am being exclusionary, I am not. Some heinous acts have been carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage. As well as by white men of non-Pakistani heritage. Personally I think we should go after criminals - hard to do when the government have gutted the justice system.
I feel for you
an Asian PM and and Asian home secretary so you cant cry racist.
You must be gutted.
Laughable. This is a policy written in crayon to stoke racism. BTW "Asian" is itself racist when you are claiming that a Hindu PM and an Indian-heritage HS are the same as people of Pakistani origin.
Can't be racist? You ever heard Indians and Pakistanis going at each other? This is someone from one heritage branding people of a different heritage to all be perverts. It is *inherently racist.
Growing up in Rochdale in the 1980s, "paki" what white person shorthand for all the Asians in the town. Despite the reality that we had sizable communities from India. Kashmir. Bangladesh. And yes Pakistan. Branding anyone with brown skin as a unitary group - "Asian" in your case - is as ignorant as my Gran calling the Indian family next door "the Pakis"
It is 2023. Really sad to read that level of ignorance is live and well. Then again we know this - that policy is aimed square at them.
Ive sat in rooms with hindus sikhs and buddhists and what they say about the muslims would have me put in jail if I said it.
And thats the point, you and your pastey faced cohorts run around yelling racism when there is no equal application of the law and all that counts is which group meets your virtue signalling twaddle this week.
So having experienced Asian on Asian racism yourself - as I have - why have you said that the HS can't be racist towards a different Asian heritage?
You mention equal application of the law. Growing up in Rochdale the local monster was Cyril Smith. Who got away with it. In more recent times the monsters have been Pakistani heritage. Who got away with it.
If inbuilt racism is the reason why we don't apply the law equally, why do we keep having appalling cases where mass offenders eventually get caught? If racism is why the Pakistani heritage gang members took so long to get caught, was it also racism that the same system ignored Smith?
Not the smartest thing you have ever posted.
It was plain that there was a very great reluctance on the part of the authorities to deal with the concerns raised by Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion due to its being “ a cultural matter.”
But overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that too many people in authority really are unbothered by child abuse, unless it’s done to their own children.
It's very sad, Britons are far more interested in animals than children.
Have you ever stopped to ponder why that might be?
Yes, it's because we're a misanthropic and socially uneasy lot who don't like other people very much - we find it much easier to project our emotions onto animals, than to our fellow man, and anthropomorphise them.
It's why the RSPCA was set up decades before the NSPCC, why caning was still allowed into the 1990s and why care home abuse (still) goes on today with a shrug.
Sounds suspiciously like slagging off the majority of the British people to me.
It's really odd how you're being so curt and trying to contrive some sort of political divide over this. This isn't Twitter.
As predicted. Pretty sure this waltz has gone on in the lead up to most recent Scottish elections (though not usually this far out): SCons suggest tactical voting coalition, SLab state they wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick, SCons moan on about being the only party who’ll protect the Union.
All very predictable - I wonder how many seats stay SNP as a result.
Nah, Labour needs to win over yes voters if it wants to win 20+ seats. Publicly cosying up to the Tories would undermine this... and besides, a lot of SCON voters in the Central Belt seem to have gone over to Labour anyway.
Of course a number of elderly Tory voters will have died over the past few years and been replaced by younger, Labour-inclined people.
Gosh if there was anything in that 'theory' the Tories would have long been extinct. Keep trying.
If you look at Tory polling numbers in younger age groups they are pretty much extinct. Generation Z does seem to be behaving differently to previous generations:
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
HOUSING!!!!!
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
Absolutely. But the Conservatives have made themselves prisoners of the bit of the electorate that isn't looking to start buying a house, doesn't mind prices going up and really doesn't want their peace and view disturbed.
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
History teaches us that the Conservatives understand the basic rules of adapt or die. They will adapt and not die. In most democracies at least 30% or more will always vote for right wing parties.
Partially agreed- if anyone can adapt, the British Conservative Party can. But decisions taken a decade ago mean that they have an unusually urgent need to adapt the message and an unusually weak gene pool from which to do it.
It took a while to recover from the Corn Laws (not a million miles from Brexit for folly) but where are the Whig- Liberals now?😊😂
Comments
Tho as you say once you are in Schengen you can cross borders by land and sea - at least - with no checking at all. So how will they ever police it with these people?
If you ever get checked in say France you can show your digital nomad card which gives you residency in Spain and the right to move around Europe. What would they do then?
It will be a mess
So juries kept valuing the stolen goods as 4/11d.
Or maybe your publications in Flint Knapper Espana would count?
I think you'd probably get away with it in practice, though - they couldn't really ban you from Schengen without persuading the Spanish to rescind your residency.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/politics-conservative-twitter-millennials-gen-z_uk_63aef8cce4b0d6f0b9f354c5
"Spain's digital nomad visa is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely for non-Spanish companies. Applicants are allowed to get a maximum of 20 per cent of their income from Spanish firms
Both self-employed freelancers with multiple clients and remote workers employed by a single company outside of Spain are eligible for the visa."
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/01/30/always-wanted-to-move-to-spain-a-new-digital-nomad-visa-could-let-you-stay-for-5-years
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220707-the-digital-nomad-visas-luring-workers-overseas
It would be harder, however, for PAYE employees, surely. Companies will introduce rules otherwise everyone will be bugging out for the sun
Remind anyone of a government a bit closer to home ?
The tax rate is hard to believe. 15%!!
We happily pay taxes toward their education, healthcare and protection but beyond that it's down to the parents.
If however humans don't intervene to protect other species and prevent the trashing of the planet in general then nobody else is going to. There is barely a problem that the world faces that isn't exacerbated by an ever-increasing population. Drought, famine, climate change, destruction of habitat. I guess my money goes to support animal and environmental charities because I don't believe that humans have the right to push everything else off the face of the earth,
It's basically FoM if you get the digital nomad visa. However you wouldn't be able to WORK outside Spain in the EU, but seeing as you are already a remote worker that doesn't matter
Passport numbers are taken in hotels so that if there is a crime or a suspect on the run, THEN these people can be traced. They aren't used otherwise, as I understand it
Until about a decade ago, the age gradient was a fairly gentle thing; Conservatives doing about five points better than average with pensioners and five points worse with Da Yoot. Conservatives were never going to go extinct, and the replenishment was fairly easy.
Something changed from 2015 onwards; austerity protecting health and pensions at the expense of almost everything else, Red Wall Theory emphasising social conservatism, Brexit, other stuff... But the age challenge for the blue team is much harder than before. Very few people of working age will admit to voting Conservative.
The Conservative success with the boomer generation is turning into a kind of drug addiction. It felt great for a while, but it has the potential to kill them.
I'm busily looking for the obvious catch, but I have yet to find it. It seems incredibly generous, and yet also clever. It will be a real menace to the economies of rainier countries
https://www.portugal.com/travel/portugal-digital-nomad-visa-2023/
It does involve a commitment to living in Portugal and paying tax there, rather than in the UK - so, practically speaking, I suspect it's only for those with a few different clients. As a consultant these days, I would definitely qualify, but there's too much keeping me in the UK to make the move.
Climate change and habitat destruction should be addressed by direct regulation on those things.
From the Spanish, Portuguese etc perspective they are getting well-established, well-paid freelancers earning well above the average wage, so even though the tax rate is lower the income is still pretty healthy - and the incomers are spending money every day too.
Conservatives, if you want to ever be elected again, get building.
(Although, to take the contrary point, those all in favour of immigration are complaining about the cost of housing. At some point they’ll see the correletion.)
What's the solution?
If juries are refusing to convict because the punishment seems disproportionate to the crime, you can either get rid of juries (bad), or change the crime to one where you don't need to go to a jury trial.
Neither are great solutions, but the fundamental problem is with mandatory sentencing.
My old boss, a Dubai property developer, used to keep extensive travel records going back a decade, because he was scared witless of a UK tax investigation. He did earn about £4m a year in salary and dividends, so any assessment would have been brutal.
I have friends in Spain and Greece. This is a real temptation
As has been obvious since ... about 1928,
MOTHER OF 10 FACES LIFE TERM IN MICHIGAN; Fourth Liquor Law Violation Gets Conviction by Jury--Counsel Plans Appeal.
https://www.nytimes.com/1928/12/13/archives/mother-of-10-faces-life-term-in-michigan-fouth-liquor-law-violation.html
The two data sets don't seem to cohere
It's a relationship that's going to kill the Conservatives unless they're careful.
It is being suggested there are over 30 charges in the indictment of Trump.
The food in Portugal is mediocre, it is amazing in much of Spain
But where in Spain? If it's a big city the obvious choices are Barcelona or Malaga. But maybe it's time think out of the box
He has no regrets.
Problem is NIMBYISM, and the Tories rolled back on their planning reforms after Chesham and Amersham
This will prove to be a hollow Lib Dem victory.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/18/victory-nimbys-chesham-amersham-no-reason-give-planning-reform/
What is British conservatism these days ?
Does he speak Portuguese or are there now enough English speakers in Lisbon it doesn't matter?
"Cashman refused to leave the cells - judge
We're now hearing Judge Mrs Justice Yip's sentencing remarks live from Manchester Crown Court.
She begins by saying she had directed Cashman to enter the court for sentencing, but he refused.
"Mr Cashman has been brought from court but has refused to leave the cells. I am left with no choice but to sentence him in his absence," she says."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-65132105
Even 25 to 35s have only voted Conservative once in the last 30 years, for Cameron in 2010
7.15 pm.
"barricades have been rected around Manhattan Criminal Court where Mr Trump will appear before Judge Juan Merchan at 2.15pm on Tuesday"
https://www.ft.com/content/18f0ca8c-607b-4633-a83f-e99f71a046e8
"How Barcelona lost its way
Politics has fostered a deep sense of malaise in a city that is one of the most visited in Europe. Street crime is rising and many businesses have left"
Is that where you are, @felix? Valencia?
They don't need to move to cheaper, lower tax largely GOP states
Interestingly, I reckon the chances of American civil strife- of some kind - are about the same. 15%
If I'm gonna do this, I want my 2,500 hours of sun a year, minimum, and guaranteed long warm dry summers
I'm rather hoping Stormy Daniels is just the whore d'oeuvres.....
UK it is.
If a Starmer government becomes unpopular the Conservatives could quickly retake a poll lead even if they still trail with under 45s
(* I'm against this BTW... Just sayin')
Apparently there’s a £250k price on his head, to stop him talking.
I’d stay in the cells too.
And on my one trip to Valencia the only thing I do remember is: the food. Which was great
What do you think the problem and the answer is?